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53
This remedy, however, is only open to those who can afford both the new rent
and the additional cost of travel from their new homes to their place of employment,
and is of limited application.
In regard to a large proportion of the overcrowding that obtains in this Borough
there does not appear, in the absence of fresh legislation, to be any solution.
Owing to the fact referred to at the beginning of this report that dwelling houses
are steadily being replaced by business premises, the situation is getting worse rather
than better, and it is impossible for overcrowded families to find alternative
accommodation within the Borough. The Council have had this aspect of the
problem under consideration, and in December of the year under consideration
passed a resolution recommending that representations should be made to His
Majesty's Government with a view to legislation being introduced to prevent the
conversion of dwelling houses into workshops.
Powers similar to those asked for were contained in the Housing (Additional
Powers) Act, 1919, Section 6, but were not included in the 1925 Consolidated Act.
If building schemes within the Borough are considered, the two difficulties
that at once arise are of building at a rent that can be afforded by those who
are now overcrowded and to devise a scheme in such a congested area that will
rehouse even as many persons as those dehoused in clearing the site.
In considering the difficulty, referred to above, of those who are prevented
from moving to the outer ring by the fact that they cannot afford the additional
cost of travel to and from work, reference should be made to an interesting resolution
passed by the Council during the year. In this resolution the Minister of Health
was asked to consider the practicability of a scheme for providing facilities for free
or assisted travel between house and place of enployment to those recommended
or such assistance by the Sanitary Authority in whose area they reside.
That the vital statistics of the Borough are so satisfactory as they are in spite
of the congestion of the population is a tribute to the sanitary habits and life of
the people and to the efficacy of the work done, by means of constant inspection,
in keeping their houses in habitable repair.
One further matter may be referred to while considering this question of
overcrowding. Cases not infrequently come to notice in which parents living already
under badly overcrowded conditions continue to have children, often unwanted
children, for whom there is little or no prospect of a healthy environment, and who,
in fact, will make worse, conditions already bad. It is hoped that the time is not
far distant when public opinion will favour the inclusion of wise advice upon birth
control, and the spacing of children in public health propaganda. This could, if